Track your loved ones’ surgery online

Last fall, a member of my family underwent surgery here at Sunnybrook. He had an incredible surgeon, and we couldn’t have asked for a better outcome. But as many families know, it’s torture sitting in the waiting room, eager for any snippet of news. There are only so many repetitive news wheels you can watch, and eventually, even the most tantalizing gossip magazines lose their entertainment value. As much as we didn’t want to keep bugging the clerk at the check-in desk, we did. So did everyone else. “No news yet? When might we have some news? How about now?” I equate it to driving in the car with my kids, who keep asking if we are there yet. Even after hearing the word ‘no’, they just can’t help themselves from asking again five minutes later. It all made for a very long and tiring day.

I spoke with one woman who used it during her mother’s surgery. “You don’t feel like you’re off in a place and you have no idea what’s going on until the surgeon comes out for you hours later,” she told me. “We knew that things were progressing and going fine, so that was nice.”It’s a reality dozens face on a daily basis, but thankfully, a new tool developed at Sunnybrook is putting information into the hands of those who need it most: family members and loved ones. Called OR Status, this tool essentially gives each patient a tracking number that they can share if they wish. Then, it’s easy for loved ones to go online to see when the surgery started, and importantly, when it finished. That frees up the time in between to do something other than sit, wait and worry.

OR Status now makes Sunnybrook one of the few hospitals in Ontario to offer real-time information on patients undergoing surgery. What a simple, wonderful idea. Now if only someone could develop a tool to prevent my kids from ever bugging me on long car rides.

Learn more about OR Status.